Brainshark Alternatives for Sales Readiness and Practice in 2026

TL;DR

• Brainshark is still sold, now as Showpad Brainshark. Bigtincan acquired Brainshark in 2021, Vector Capital acquired Bigtincan in April 2025, and Vector combined Bigtincan with Showpad in October 2025 under the Showpad brand.
• Showpad's Brainshark page lists formal courses, AI-generated voices and avatars for content, video-based coaching, Roleplay AI practice, rubrics and readiness scorecards tied to CRM data. Showpad says Brainshark can still be bought standalone.
• None of the vendors below publish a price for their readiness or practice products (checked October 2026). All quote after a demo.
• The main alternatives for sales readiness and practice are Showpad's own Sales Readiness product, Seismic Learning, Highspot by Seismic, Mindtickle, Allego and focused AI practice tools such as Quotain.
• Pick a suite if you need courses, certification and content in one place. Pick a focused practice tool if your gap is live calls against buyers who act like your real accounts. Test both on the same call before you sign.

This guide is for sales enablement, sales leadership and RevOps teams who use Brainshark today or are comparing it. If you are trying to sign in to Brainshark for your employer's training, use the link your company sent you or ask your manager. This post does not cover logins.

What happened to Brainshark

Brainshark has changed owners more than once since 2021.

Today Showpad sells the product as Showpad Brainshark, and its page says "Brainshark is now part of Showpad." The old brainshark.com site now redirects to Bigtincan's Readiness page, which describes training, coaching and AI roleplay without using the Brainshark name. Showpad's menu also lists Showpad Bigtincan Hub, so you will see all three names during a renewal. Google autocomplete reflects the confusion: "brainshark vs bigtincan" and "brainshark showpad" both appear.

What Showpad Brainshark includes today

From Showpad's Brainshark page, checked October 26, 2026:

• Training. Formal courses for onboarding, compliance and required training. AI-generated voices and avatars for building learning content, imports from LinkedIn Learning or SCORM, and AI-generated quiz questions.
• Coaching and practice. Video-based coaching and roleplay practice to certify that reps can deliver key messages. Reps practice against an AI partner with Roleplay AI and record pitches for tone-of-voice analysis.
• Scoring. Rubrics for each activity, a Practice Mode before formal review, and scores for managers.
• Reporting. Readiness scorecards tied to CRM data and sales KPIs.
• LMS export. Content can be exported as SCORM files for your LMS.
• Packaging. Showpad says Brainshark "can also be purchased standalone" for teams that do not need a full sales enablement suite.

If you are a Brainshark customer, the first alternative to price is staying and moving to Showpad's newer readiness features. The rest of this guide covers what to compare against.

Brainshark alternatives at a glance

How we compared

Quotain publishes this guide and sells one of the tools on the list, so we say where each other vendor fits better. On October 26, 2026 we read each vendor's own product and pricing pages, linked in each section below, plus the ownership releases above. We compared six things: course and certification tools, AI practice (mode, personas, scoring), how scenarios get built, language coverage, security pages, and how each vendor prices. We did not use paid accounts or private quotes. Vendor pages change often, so confirm packaging in writing during a pilot.

1. Showpad Sales Readiness

Best for: Brainshark customers who want to stay with one vendor.

Showpad's Sales Readiness page lists role-based learning paths, coaching dashboards for managers, automated certification workflows, Roleplay AI for sales simulations, and Pitch AI to certify sellers on company messaging. The Roleplay AI page describes an AI buyer avatar that "can object or interrupt," difficulty from Basic to Expert, scoring criteria you write or generate with AI, and up to 10 weighted feedback categories. Its FAQ lists 14 supported languages.

Pricing: Showpad's pricing page shows Professional, Advanced and Expert plans with no prices, says Showpad "is licensed on a per-user basis," and places Roleplay AI in Advanced and above.

What to test: whether moving from Brainshark to Showpad's readiness features keeps your course history, video coaching records and certifications intact, and what the renewal price looks like for each path.

2. Seismic Learning

Best for: teams that want training beside Seismic's sales content tools.

Seismic Learning is the product Seismic built from Lessonly. Seismic's Learning & Coaching page lists interactive online sales training courses, AI-powered role-plays, video recordings for rep preparation, AI-driven skills assessments, AI coaching programs and connections to your LMS and CRM. Seismic's Trust Center lists SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO/IEC 27001:2022.

Pricing: no public price. Seismic routes buyers to a personalized demo. Our Seismic Learning review covers what the public pages leave out.

What to test: whether role-plays run as voice calls or text, and how scenarios are built from your content.

3. Highspot by Seismic

Best for: practice tied to sales plays and content.

Seismic completed its merger with Highspot on August 18, 2026, and Highspot now runs as Highspot by Seismic. Highspot's merger page says there are no migration plans for its customers. Its AI Role Play page lists scenarios by persona, product and objection, multi-persona sessions with champions, skeptics and economic and technical buyers, and feedback tied to your coaching frameworks.

Pricing: Highspot's pricing page shows three packages with "Contact sales" only. Training and role play sit in the "Train and practice" package.

What to test: ask which Seismic product the rep will propose for your team, since Seismic now sells two. Our Highspot review covers Highspot in more detail.

4. Mindtickle

Best for: certification waves at scale.

Mindtickle's sales training page covers onboarding, coaching, certifications and bite-sized mobile learning. Its AI Role Play page says AI builds a scenario "from a few prompts," offers dozens of prebuilt buyer personas and voices, supports role plays and feedback in 25+ languages, and can "automatically grade and certify thousands of submissions." The same page states SOC 2 Type 2 compliance.

Pricing: Mindtickle says pricing "depends on factors like company size and team structure" and offers no self-serve free version of AI role play.

What to test: how much a scenario built from a few prompts sounds like your buyers, compared with one built from your own calls. See Quotain vs Mindtickle for a side-by-side.

5. Allego

Best for: global programs that need many languages.

Allego sells learning, content, conversation intelligence and coaching in one suite, with a Modern Learning product for courses. Its AI Role Play and Coaching page lists unscripted simulations, support for 32 languages and 71 voices and accents, scoring in 59 languages, and AI-driven scorecards aligned to defined skills.

Pricing: no public price on the AI Role Play page.

What to test: run your required languages with a local reviewer, since a language count does not prove call quality. See Quotain vs Allego.

6. Quotain

Best for: deal-specific voice practice and real-call grading.

Quotain is a focused AI sales roleplay tool, not a learning suite. It builds each AI buyer from your playbook, past calls, CRM context and knowledge files, and reps run live voice calls at four difficulty levels (Quotain vs Mindtickle). Every session is graded against your rubric, including must-pass criteria, reps can dispute a score, and a weak moment can become a focused drill. On team plans, Quotain can run multiparty calls with several buyer personas, screen-share demo practice, and grading of recorded or imported customer calls with the same scorecard. Practice runs in 30+ languages. Buyers appear as still portraits, not video avatars.

Pricing: Quotain's pricing page offers up to three free practice calls with no credit card, and team plans are custom-quoted.

What to test: whether a buyer built from one real account raises the objections that account raised on its last call.

Where Brainshark fits better than Quotain

Brainshark, now Showpad Brainshark, is the better fit in several cases, and a fair comparison should say so.

• You need courses and compliance training. Brainshark handles formal courses, quizzes, SCORM import and export, and content built with AI voices and avatars. Quotain does not replace a learning management system.
• Your reps record pitches for review. Video-based coaching and recorded pitch scoring are core Brainshark jobs. Quotain practice is a live voice call with a still buyer portrait, not a recorded video.
• You want readiness scores beside CRM data. Showpad says Brainshark readiness scorecards tie directly to CRM data and sales KPIs.
• You need SOC 2 or SSO today. Quotain does not currently offer SOC 2 certification or SSO. Ask Showpad for its current security documents.
• Switching costs are high. If years of courses, certifications and coaching records live in Brainshark, moving has a real price. Some teams keep Brainshark for courses and add a practice tool for live calls.

What to plan before you switch

If you leave Brainshark, list what has to move and who owns each item:

• Course content: check which courses export as SCORM files for your next tool.
• Certification records: export pass dates and scores before the contract ends.
• Video coaching history: decide whether you need old rep recordings or only current results.
• Rubrics: rebuild your scoring criteria in the new tool and test them on old recordings.
• CRM links: confirm the new tool can connect readiness data to the same CRM fields.
• Contract dates: line up the new pilot so it ends at least a month before your Brainshark renewal notice date.

Our sales certification program guide covers how to rebuild certification steps, and how to reduce sales ramp time covers onboarding plans.

How to choose: a two-week pilot scorecard

Pick one real sales moment, such as a pricing call or a first discovery call for a new product. Give every vendor the same source packet: playbook, two recorded calls, account notes and your scorecard. Score each line 0 (fails), 1 (partly works) or 2 (works), and record the evidence.

At the end of week two, decide to proceed, retest one item, or stop, and name an owner and a date. For scoring design, see our sales call scorecard. For a wider list of practice tools, see our guide to the best AI sales roleplay software.

Frequently asked questions

Is Brainshark still around?

Yes. Brainshark is still sold as Showpad Brainshark, checked October 2026. Showpad's page says Brainshark is now part of Showpad and can be bought standalone by teams that do not need a full sales enablement suite. The old brainshark.com site now redirects to Bigtincan's Readiness page.

Who owns Brainshark?

Showpad sells Brainshark today. Bigtincan acquired Brainshark in 2021, Vector Capital acquired Bigtincan in April 2025, and in October 2025 Vector completed its purchase of Showpad and combined the two companies under the Showpad brand, according to Vector Capital's October 30, 2025 release.

What is Brainshark used for?

Teams use Brainshark for sales readiness: building training courses, running onboarding and compliance training, and coaching reps through recorded video pitches and AI roleplay. Showpad's page also lists rubrics for scoring each activity and readiness scorecards tied to CRM data.

What is the difference between Brainshark and Bigtincan?

Brainshark was a sales training and readiness company that Bigtincan bought in 2021. Bigtincan sells a wider enablement suite that includes content management and readiness. Since October 2025 both are part of Showpad, which sells Showpad Brainshark and Showpad Bigtincan Hub as separate tools.

How much does Brainshark cost?

Showpad does not publish a price for Brainshark, checked October 2026. Its pricing page says Showpad is licensed per user and asks buyers to request a quote. Ask for a written quote that lists seats, included readiness and AI features, support tier and renewal terms, and compare it with alternatives at the same scope.

Does Brainshark have AI roleplay?

Yes. Showpad's Brainshark page says reps can practice against an AI partner and get instant Virtual Coach feedback with Roleplay AI. Showpad's Roleplay AI page describes buyer avatars that object and interrupt, difficulty levels from Basic to Expert, and weighted scoring categories. Its pricing page places Roleplay AI in the Advanced plan and above.

What is the best Brainshark alternative for sales practice?

It depends on the gap. If you need courses, certification and content together, compare Showpad Sales Readiness, Seismic Learning, Highspot by Seismic, Mindtickle and Allego. If your main gap is live call practice against buyers built from your own deals, test a focused AI roleplay tool such as Quotain on the same real call.

Run the pilot before your renewal notice date

The cheapest time to compare is before your Brainshark renewal notice date. Pick one call your reps have coming up, build it from your own playbook and recordings, and score it the same way in each tool. Compare suite options in Quotain vs Mindtickle and Quotain vs Allego, see how buyers are built on the AI sales simulations page, read how practice feeds onboarding and certification, or book a demo to scope a two-week pilot. You can also try a free practice call today.